Your daily Pittsburgh Pirates Prospect Watch article for recaps of all of today’s games. Be sure to pick up your copy of the latest Prospect Guide in our store, available as an ebook or a limited edition paperback.
Tahnaj Thomas was originally listed as the Greensboro starter. No idea whether the change means anything.
INDIANAPOLIS
(7:05pm)
Starting Pitcher: Max Kranick (1-2, 6.04, 22.1 IP, 21 K) 4 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 K
Notable Performances:
Fabricio Macias 0-2, BB
Game Recap:
Indianapolis (31-30) beat Omaha, 4-3, in a game called after five innings. The timing was great, as the Indians scored three in the bottom of the fifth to erase a 3-1 deficit. Max Kranick started and gave up a run over four innings before being pulled after the first of two rain delays. Shelby Miller vultured the win after giving up two runs, one earned, in the top of the fifth. Indy got an RBI double from Bligh Madris in the fourth, then another one by Dee Strange-Gordon in the fifth. T.J. Rivera followed Strange-Gordon’s hit with a two-run single.
ALTOONA
(6:30pm)
Starting Pitcher: Trey McGough 7 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K
Notable Performances:
Jonah Davis 2-4, HR (7)
Canaan Smith-Njigba 1-3, HR (6), BB
Mason Martin 1-4
Cal Mitchell 0-4
Game Recap:
Trey McGough had an excellent start for Altoona (33-27), giving up just one run on four hits and no walks over seven innings. He needed only 77 pitches, throwing 54 strikes. After scuffling in his first two AA starts, McGough has a 2.20 ERA in his last five. That includes just three walks and 22 strikeouts in 28.2 IP. And he’s a lefty (!) and not much over 23, despite the plague year. It might have been better to leave McGough in. He left with a 3-1 lead, but John O’Reilly quickly blew it in the eighth, giving up three runs. That led to a 4-3 loss to Binghamton. The Altoona runs all came on dingers. Jonah Davis led off the bottom of the first with his seventh of the year. Davis is batting 333/353/576 in July. His K rate is still alarming, but in July he has it down to 36% of his ABs, while it was well over half before that. The other longball, a two-run, opposite field shot, came from Canaan Smith-Njigba, his sixth. The Curve had only six hits.
GREENSBORO
(7:00pm)
Starting Pitcher: Santiago Florez 5 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 3 K
Notable Performances:
Matt Fraizer 0-4
Nick Gonzales 0-4
Game Recap:
Santiago Florez had a rough introduction to high class A in Greensboro’s (37-26) 6-0 loss to Rome. Florez settled down, though, throwing four scoreless innings afterward. Alex Manasa and Cam Junker gave up the other three runs. The Grasshoppers were stymied by 26-year-old A.J. Puckett, who before this year hadn’t pitched since 2017 due to injuries. The Hoppers had just four hits, half of them by Jared Triolo.
BRADENTON
(7:05pm)
Starting Pitcher: Domingo Gonzalez 6 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 10 K
Notable Performances:
Hudson Head 1-5, HR (9), BB
Jack Herman 0-3, 3 BB
Dariel Lopez 0-4, BB
Alexander Mojica 1-4, HBP
Eddy Yean 3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K
Game Recap:
Bradenton (41-21) bludgeoned Daytona, 11-1. The Marauders still trail the aged Tampa team by two games, but they’re six games better than anybody else in the league. Domingo Gonzalez dominated for six innings, walking none and fanning ten. Eddy Yean struck out another five over three innings, with a hit batsman accounting for the only runner. The Bradenton hitters had ten hits and seven walks. Jack Herman drew three walks, Hudson Head hit his ninth home run and Kyle Wilkie hit his first as a pro. Jase Bowen and Francisco Acuna had doubles.
FCL PIRATES BLACK
(Noon)
Starting Pitcher: Po-Yu Chen 5 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 7 K
Notable Performances:
Juan Jerez 0-4, SB
Deion Walker 1-4
Game Recap:
The Black team (8-4) edged the Braves, 3-2. Po-Yu Chen continued to impress allowing one earned run — his only one in three starts — over five innings. In 14 innings, he’s fanned 19 and has yet to walk a batter. Jake Sweeney followed with three hitless innings, although he gave up an unearned run. Yunior Thibo pitched a hitless ninth to get the save. The offense managed only six hits, all of them singles and half of them by Darwin Baez. Rayber Romero reached base three times. Jhan Polanco and Franrielis Bastardo each drove in a run with a bases-loaded walk. The other run scored on a wild pitch.
FCL PIRATES GOLD
(Noon)
Starting Pitcher: Bladimir Dotel 3 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K
Notable Performances:
Jasiah Dixon 2-4, BB, SB
Tsung-Che Cheng 0-5
Rodolfo Nolasco 0-3, BB
Sergio Campana 0-3, BB, SB
Game Recap:
The Gold team (9-3) scored two in the top of the ninth to beat the Twins, 4-2. Jasiah Dixon drove in the go-ahead run, then stole second and came around on two errors. Bladimir Dotel started and gave up a run over three innings. Darvin Garcia threw three shutout innings, allowing no hits or walks, and fanning five. Mario Garcia threw two scoreless innings to get the win. Gustavo Polanco drove in the first two runs. Norkis Marcos reached base four times, including three walks. Polanco and Dixon had the only extra base hits, both doubles.
DSL PIRATES BLACK
(10:30am)
Starting Pitcher: Sebastian Rodriguez 3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K
Notable Performances:
Enmanuel Terrero 0-3
Javier Rivas 0-2, BB
Ewry Espinal 2-3, 2B, 3B
Game Recap:
The Black team (1-2) picked up their first win, blanking the Red Sox Blue, 3-0. (The Pirates’ DSL teams seem to be playing seven-inning games. That seems to be the case in some parts of the DSL but not all.) Sebastian Rodriguez and Darlin Diaz each threw three scoreless innings, giving up three hits total. Diaz is only 17 and was one of the Pirates’ top mound signees in the 2020-21 signing period. Miguel Diaz pitched the ninth. The Pirates had only four hits, two each by Ronny Sanchez and Ewry Espinal. Sanchez had a triple and Espinal, who’s a potential power hitter, had a double and a triple.
DSL PIRATES GOLD
(10:30am)
Starting Pitcher: Andres Silvera 3 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 0 K
Notable Performances:
Jeral Toledo 2-2, BB, HBP
Esmerlyn Valdez 0-4
Eddy Rodriguez 2-3, HR (1), HBP
Game Recap:
The Gold team (3-0) stayed undefeated, coming back from a 4-1 deficit to beat the Giants Orange, 7-5. The Pirates dug a hole for themselves with six errors. Four of the five runs they allowed were unearned. Starter Andres Silvera, a signee from Panama who won’t turn 17 for a few more days, gave up two of the uneared runs in three innings, allowing only two hits. Patricio Ress allowed two unearned runs over two and a third innings. Luis Joseph allowed the only earned run and Weslyn Toussaint pitched the seventh for the save. The main offensive firepower came from Eddy Rodriguez, who was one of the team’s more prominent signings in the 2020-21 period. He drove in four runs, three with his first pro home run, and scored three times. Jeral Toledo reached base three times, scored twice and drove in one run.
